Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazylemongirl]

my bad immigration story actually comes from the new zealand immigration service. I had to go overseas rather urgently. I had my canadian passport, but my proof of new zealand citizenship had only just arrived so it was cheaper to get a stamp in my canadian passport than get an urgent kiwi passport.

So I go up to immigration and wait in queue for two hours (despite arriving at 8 an hour before immigration actually opens). I finally get served now you'd think that a certificate of citizenship would be a really good piece of documentation to say 'hey I should be allowed back in' But it wasn't. The immigration service sent me away because I didn't have any records of entry into the country. So I start digging through the family archives and finally find the record of entry into the country. My mother's 20 year old passport.

The clincher was that when we came back to new zealand my mom left her passport in the bag with the duty free. My uncle throws the duty free in the car and the kauluha spills over the passport so the stamp that shows our entrance into the country is well not really there anymore.

So again I go down to immigration with kauluha passport in hand and wait my two hours to be served. The look on the immigration officer was priceless as she tried to make sense of the passport. Finally the supervisor agrees that yes maybe they should just verfiy my entry into the country on the basis of holding kiwi citizenship rather than the mess of ink.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[oneiros]

Or they forget to put the correct silly little red stamp on the bottom of your exit order, and you don't find that out until you're standing at the check-in desk at Incheon.

Or the nice immigration guy at Incheon can't figure out that when you hand him an exit order, your ARC, and your passport with a big "VOID" stamped on your visa, that you won't be coming back on the same E-2.

[Len8]

Slightly off the subject, but still about immigration. At my university there are a lot of Chinese students who have come to take a Korean language class. There were two groups that came originally. Now two more groups have come. A group that came with the original group took off after a month to find work in Ansan. That of course means the university must paye a hefty fine.

I am attending classes with them part time, and can hold my own on the speaking end, but my writing in hangul sure sucks. Anyway I have since learned that everyone of them had to paye about W15,000,000 ($14,000 U.S.) to get a visa to come to Korea. On top of that they gotta paye for the course and accomodation. Those doing the DDD jobs gotta paye the same for the priviledge of doing dirty factory jobs.

We also had exchange students from China for the last year, and they only paid W150,000 for their visa.

For the life of me I can't figure out why some visa's cost so much.

To enter Canada I have heard that someone from China has to paye W40,000,000 ($37,000 U.S.) to get a visa to study at middleschool, highschool, or a university.

Someone from Russia who is working on Texas street in Pusan only payes W150,000

Anyone out there got any more info on the subject

[funplanet]

Friday I went to Incheon immigration just to get a re-entry permit. Usually easy and quick. Anyway, lunch ends and I take a number from the machine and sit to wait. Only 2 booths open (not counting the China desk) and not too many people, only about 6 or 8 people in front of me.

Well, the lady in the booth I need serves 3 customers fairly quickly (although she did yell at a crying baby-which only made it cry more loudly) and then she hits the next number and no one shows up. She decides to clean her desk, empty the trash, and talk to the lady next door. Bing-another number and no one shows up. I'm thinking I'll get out of her rather quickly but she gets up again, straigthens her desk, rearranges some stuff and heads off to a back room.

At the same time the lady in the booth that serves D-8, etc visas has only served 1 customer. She hits the button, no one comes and she just sits there staring into space doing nothing.

The other lady comes back, hits the button and waits. No takers. She gets up and empties the second lady's trash! Then she goes and talks to another girl, empties her trash and sits down and straightens up her desk again.

By now I see the pattern and I am starting to get a little perturbed. The D-8 lady goes through the customer numbers one after another but just sits there doing nothing.

My booth girl hits the button again, sits for a minute and no one approaches. She gets up and heads off for the bathroom I think.

By now I am perturbed! So I get up and ask the D-8 lady if she could take my passport, paper, and process it quickly since she has NOTHING TO DO!!! She says she cannot do it, that I must go to the other booth. I remind her that the other lady has no customers either but spends most of her time cleaning her desk and walking around. She seemed miffed at my comment and told me that I must wait.

The other lady comes back and hits the button. No one approaches so she gets up and starts playing around with a shopping bag. I get up and ask her politely if she could just go ahead and take me. "What is your number?" I tell her and she says I must wait until my number is called. At this point there are maybe 3 or 4 numbers to go. I look around and tell her there are mostly Chinese in the room and they are getting helped. She says I must wait.

To make a long story short I ended up waiting for an hour. I could have been served and outta there 30 minutes earlier.

Go figure....

[phaedrus]

[schwa]

Just got back from immigration myself, heres my tale:

Arrived 1 pm. The office is cool, calm, clean, some quiet music playing. I'm the only customer. I fill out a couple forms & a pleasant young woman greets me at the counter with a smile. She speaks english well. We make small talk & laugh a few times as she processes my visa extension, transfers the relevant data to my new passport, stamps in a multiple entry permit, & updates my ARC. I pay & we're done. Smooth. 1:20 pm.

This is what I've come to expect from my local office.

[intergalactic]

Here's mine:

I go to immigration with the schedule and contract for summer camp (3 week camp). I need to get permission to do this on my F1 visa. They had told me a few months ago working was no problem as long as I brought in the schedule and contract.

There's no-one there except one American guy with his helper and another couple with a kid wandering around the office. So I fill out the 'change of activity' form and waddle over to the desk. On the way to the desk I SLIP in a giant pool of piss that the kid has done on the floor, fall down and become soaked in urine. No-one batts an eyelid except the foreigner who is quite concerned. The kids parents have no clue what has happened. I sit down at the desk, trying to keep my cool, and receive a "What do you want" from the immigration woman. I show her my paperwork and she says I can't work at a camp on my visa. No explanation why. She calls the university office in charge of the camp and tells them the same thing. I perform a few "ott-o-kae"s and just get my stuff back in a pile with a 'sorry' and 'goodbye'.

Four days later a teacher at the LEC (same university) does a runner and I am asked to cover his classes. I remind the school that I wasn't granted a visa for camp. They prepare the paperwork anyway and I go back to immigration. No pee-puddle this time at least.

I have a new E2 visa stamped in my passport in 10 minutes. The classes I am teaching go for 3 days longer than the summer camp, but at one third the hours and pay.

A visa to work for 15 days if you say the word 'camp' is called C4.
I cannot have one.

A visa to work for 18 days without mentioning the word 'camp' is an E2.
I can have one of those.

Who is making the rules?

[oneiros]

[itaewonguy]

immigration!! JESUS! I hate going there once a year.

its the only time iin a year that I met the most stupid humans in the world!
I mean I have many.. but immigration workers.. they are CLASSIC!!!

PURE STUPIDITY!!!

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

Last winter I went to immigration to renew my F2-1 visa. I was with Wifey and the little girl. This was around the time that they were deporting a lot of illegal workers, and the place was jam-packed. We're sitting down, waiting for our number, when this Chinese guy (saw his passport) walks over and starts trying to read my ARC. Wifey noticed and asked him in Korean what the hell he was doing (ban-mal style). The guy just looks at her with this moronic smile. Wifey grabs me and we go sit somewhere else.

Weird Chinese guy, what's up with you?

Sparkles*_*

[Toby]

I was there, Seoul, this morning, getting my F2-1. Had to wait because they were busy, but ended up seeing nice woman behind the desk.

She was really nice and helpful, smiled and even gave me my money back on the cost of getting the visa, due to me being british and on an existing E2.

No problems at all. She was finding it funny that I was having to fill out so many forms.

Now I have to wait and see if it arrives at school in the next 10 days....

[chiaa]

There is one middle ageed woman at the Seoul immigration office you must stay away from if you dont want to be put in jail for going crazy on her. When you take your number, wait two minutes then take another and then do it over and over. When your numbers are callled, make sure it is not her. If it is, wait for your next number.

[SuperFly]

Chiaa, I'd like to hear more about that woman, I think I remember her from 97....she wore glasses. On another slant, immigration in Phoenix is pretty horrible too. I brought my wife here on a fiance visa (6 month wait) in 1999.

Here in Phoenix you have to wait in line to get a number, the line goes outside the building and around the corner into a parking lot. This happens every single freakin day. After 3 hours in line you get to sit down and 45 minutes later they call your number. Hordes of people line up from 4 in the morning. Thank god it's over now, she's a permanent resident and about to apply for citizenship. PHX immigration or ins offices suck here far more than they suck in Korea imho.

And they pretty much treat you like $hit too. I would advise anyone who is planning to bring a wife back here (AZ) get an immigration attorney, pay the 2500 dollars and save yourself a ton of anger and frustration.

You can't even call the ins here. They only give out a fax number. I remember back in 2001, we needed to get permission for her to travel back to Korea for two weeks, so we applied within their guidelines, 90 days in advance....two days before the flight, we hadn't heard anything from them so I faxed them a letter that got their attention. They called the house and left a message telling us that permission was granted.

On the other hand, John told me about his experience in Alabama. There was no one in the office when they went! The ins officer called them at home and gave them updates on their situation, paperwork and guided them through the entire process. wtf? Oh wait. His dad is an attorney...no wonder. Sorry, forgot about that.

[chiaa]

I want to say that she does wear glasses but I am not 100% sure. Seriously, she is to be one of the miserable women on earth. I do know that she is the only middle-aged woman there right now (or the one that I have ever noticed) and only one of two women that works the front lines.

My wife (a Korean) he even mentioned how much of a bitch she is.

[slap it]

stupid...babo...stupid...government officials here in korea are downright ignorant